


Wild Goose Chase

by V_Arakawa



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Adevnture, Angst, Gen, Missing Himalaya mission, Team Building
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-06
Updated: 2015-10-06
Packaged: 2018-04-25 03:55:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4945768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/V_Arakawa/pseuds/V_Arakawa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Remember when Prime Minister Saxon sent Torchwood off on "a wild goose chase in the Himalaya"? No? Well, here's what happened. Plus a lot of emotions running wild.</p><p>Set between series 1 and 2 of Torchwood - concurrent to Doctor Who series 3 ep. 11-13 (Utopia, The Sound of Drums, Last of the Time Lords)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Cardiff

Monday morning, nine o’clock, freezing Welsh rain as usual. Cardiff could be sunny, but over the past two months, there had been barely any blue sky over the city. Was the weather the reason why Jack had left? Or was the city mourning his absence?

Gwen shook her head to get rid of these ridiculous thoughts as she hurried through the endless downpour. She was late. Again. Because "someone" she shared her flat with had found it funny to hide her car keys. She loved Rhys, but sometimes it was just exhausting to be his girlfriend. Fiancé. Oh yeah. That sounded good. Wonder what Jack... No, come on, Gwen, stop thinking about him. He left and who knows when he'll get back. Or if at all.

She took the elevator by the water tower to work. Last time it had rained that heavily she had almost slipped down the stairs towards the walkway that lead to the tourist office and she didn't want to experience that again. 

As she descended down into the Hub, past mossy stones and Myfanwy's nest, she immediately noticed the unusual atmosphere. It was quiet. Well, not completely quiet. There was the sound of people working, but apart from that there was nothing: no happy chatter, no giggles, not even swear words from Owen.

Gwen tried not to sigh. This couldn't be good. "Morning, everyone. Everything alright?" She called out as she stepped off the elevator stone.

Toshiko didn't even care to look up, her eyes fixating whatever it was that was blinking on the computer screen in front of her. "Hello, Gwen." She didn't say the words "you're late again'', but Gwen could clearly see them floating in mid-air. "Just ignore the boys this morning. Too much testosterone flying around..." Toshiko sounded annoyed and Gwen noticed that she was typing much louder than usual, a clear indicator of her being upset.

"Okay..." Gwen smiled, but didn't dare asking what exactly was going on. Instead, she went to the morgue where she found Owen examining - well, something. It was purple and looked like a mixture between a giant squid and a baby elephant, if such a thing existed. At least it wasn't smelling or anything.

She put on her warmest smile and took the last steps down to the examination table. "Morning, Owen. What's that?" 

Owen looked up from his work, his clothes stained by the bodily fluids of the purple thing in front of him. "Fell through the Rift last night. Had to recover it on my own because _someone_ on this team didn't pick up his phone although he was on duty." He almost shouted the last bit of the sentence.

Oh boy. Of course, Torchwood employees had never been known for getting much sleep, but Gwen had wanted to change that with a simple system: one person on night shift, another one on call, and the two others could switch off their phones and sleep - or, in her case, spend some quality time with Rhys. So much for that.

She smiled apologetically. "Sorry to hear that. I'm sure he didn't mean to—"

"Yeah, of course he didn't. Just didn't want to be disturbed in his wet dreams about Jack." Owen rammed his scalpel into the purple mess on the table and purple spats of liquid covered even more of his white coat.

"You should shut up if you want coffee this morning." Ianto had turned up without a sound - he seemed to know a way into the Hub that didn’t use the heavy cog wheel door. With a loud _clang_ , he put Owen's cup of steaming hot coffee on the uppermost step of the stairs towards the morgue.

Owen let go of the scalpel and turned towards Ianto who was already walking away. "Then where were you last night? You practically begged us to let you go into the field, now pick up your bloody phone when it rings!"

Ianto shrugged, but didn't care to stop or turn his head. "Must have forgotten to charge it. Sorry." And then he was gone. Even he must have known it was a weak excuse. Ianto and an uncharged phone? Not even if the Apocalypse was happening.

***

Gwen was standing in the secret passageway to the Hub, watching Ianto staring at his computer screen. Not that she fancied this kind of conversation, but she was the interim boss and she had to keep the team together. Only the job had seemed so much easier when Jack had done it.

"Have a minute?"

Ianto didn't look up. "Could you please close that door? There could be a tourist coming in any second."

"I don't think so." Gwen pointed at the office's door to the Quay. "You forgot to turn the sign around."

Ianto looked up and saw the sign that clearly read "Open", but was looking at him and not at the tourists outside. "Oh." That was all he said, but he didn't get up to correct his mistake.  
Gwen frowned. None of this was anything like him. "What's wrong? Because something's wrong, I know that." She tried not to sound too worried, but failed.

"I'm fine." Ianto didn't look at her, though, and that alone was enough to tell her that he wasn't.

She put on a smile, tried to speak in an almost motherly tone. She wanted to sound reassuring, but it came out rather awkward. "I'm sure he's fine. He probably just needed - a vacation. Get away from this city for a while - from the rain. Or hunt some Weevils. I'm sure he'll be back soon." They both knew it was a lie. If this had been day three of Jack's absence, Gwen might have believed herself. But on day 85, you start wondering whether it was really worth still considering Jack a member of Torchwood anyway.

Ianto knew that of course. He didn't say anything, didn't look at her. Just stared at his computer screen. And then Gwen noticed it was just showing the blue main desktop. No file, no programme opened. How long had he been sitting here like this?

Gwen's phone beeped. Not a text from Rhys, but a calendar reminder: "10:00 a.m., Weekly Briefing". In the "How to be a better boss" book, it had sounded useful to have fixed meetings. In reality, it didn't work well with the way Torchwood functioned, but Gwen didn't want to admit that yet.

She held up her phone so Ianto could see the screen. "We're having our weekly meeting. You coming?"

"Just a second."

"Okay." Gwen smiled, but Ianto didn't see it as he still didn't look at her. So she turned and went back down into the Hub. 

While she leaned in the elevator, she put a new reminder into her calendar: "Today, 6 p.m.: Cardiff Library, team management and motivation books".

***

The meeting was rather unfruitful and unusually hard to get through as the atmosphere between Owen and Ianto was still charged and they even refused to look at each other. Gwen even thought the coffee was more bitter than usual, but maybe she was just imagining things.

The day ground on as the Rift had seemingly decided it was too wet in Cardiff to send any aliens there. Toshiko of course always had something to work on, but Gwen and Owen soon found themselves playing poker in what used to be Jack's office and was now barely used as Gwen preferred being around the others. Of course, Owen won every game, but Gwen didn't mind as she hoped this would better his mood. At least he was grinning happily again.

"Straight flush, again." Triumphantly, he put the cards down in front of him. He was probably cheating, even Gwen knew how low the odds for a straight flush were.

"I'll never learn how to play this." Gwen sighed jokingly as she put her own cards on the table, a wild mixture of kings, queens and 10s in various colours.

Owen picked up their cards and began to shuffle them again. "What do we do about lunch? I'm starving."

Gwen nodded, she felt the same way. She picked up the phone and pressed the button for the tourist office as ordering food was Ianto's job - he always managed to get a discount or a free extra salad.  
The phone rang. Once, twice, five times, ten times... Gwen hung up. "Must be busy with tourists up there." She shrugged and checked the computer's camera feed - only to find the tourist office deserted. She cursed silently and tried the in-ear com. "Ianto, are you there? We want to order lunch..."

No answer.

"Ianto, hello, this is Gwen, it's half twelve and we're starving."

Still no answer.

Owen stopped shuffling. "Ianto, it's Owen, if you don't get your arse up here in a second, I'll go to Sainsbury's and the only thing I'll get you is a package of instant coffee."

A loud cracking sound and then even louder static. Both Gwen and Owen had to take their coms out as the noise was deafening.

"Okay, that's it!" Owen jumped up. "If he can't get his shit together, you have to put him on permanent leave!" And with that, he stormed off, not even asking what she wanted from Sainsbury’s.

Gwen rubbed her temples, then turned to the computer where she checked for the positions of their in-ear coms. They sent off tracking signals, but they had never really used this feature as Jack had never been much of a fan of carrying around computers (save his wrist-whatever-technical-thing-it-was). 

Toshiko's com blinked near her computer station, Owen's and Gwen's in Jack's office and Ianto's – also in Jack's office? That couldn't be right. Gwen zoomed closer and saw that it wasn't blinking in Jack's office, but under it – in Jack's private quarter. 

She felt uncomfortable about entering the place. They were free to roam the Hub, but this room was strictly off-limits. Or at least, she had never been invited down there and she assumed that this was true for most of Torchwood's members since the room's establishment.

Of course it didn't surprise her that Ianto was an exception and she assumed that this wasn't the first time that he had sneaked in there while Jack was gone. But Torchwood had to function without Jack and as the boss she couldn't allow one of her team members to neglect his duty or even break expensive gear for no sound reason.

She rubbed her temples again. The shitty weather should have been a warning that this day would suck massively.

She got up and went to the hole in the ground from where a ladder lead to Jack's private quarters. Although he wasn't there, she still wanted to respect his privacy, so instead of climbing down, she just sat down next to the hole.

"Ianto?"

No reply.

"Ianto, I know you're down there." Gwen called a little louder. She had no idea if there were several rooms down there or if it looked more like a prisoner's cell. Once again it occurred to her that she knew very little about Jack.

"Go away..." Ianto's voice was slightly muffled, but loud enough to understand.

"No, sorry, I won't." She took a deep breath. Things have to be said out loud, otherwise nothing will change, or so the management book had told her. "I get it. You miss Jack, and I know not having him around is even more difficult for you than it is for us. But you have to pull yourself together. You're working here. And you're not getting paid for staring at the wall or hiding in Jack's room." Gwen was surprised how angry she suddenly sounded. She wanted to sound kind and understanding. Like a good boss.

She wanted to make up for it, say something nice, but suddenly Jack's office phone rang. Not the ordinary one, the red one. The one that was reserved for calls from the Queen and the Prime Minister.


	2. Himalaya - Part I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Torchwood's adventure in the Himalaya continues.

London Heathrow, some six hours later. The Torchwood team was waiting for their flight to Delhi where they would change to their flight for Leh where a car would pick them up to drive them – somewhere. A place with no Wikipedia entry or a proper website – was that still possible in today’s world? 

Gwen found the airport waiting area much too warm for the thick jacket she had taken with her, so she took it off only to realize it was also way too thick to be neatly folded on her knees.

Their flight didn’t seem to have many passengers, at least not many people were sitting on the benches with them. A few businessmen, a few Indian families, and of course the odd hippie tourist...

As was to be expected, Rhys had been angry. He was at work, so they didn’t even get to say each other a proper goodbye. And she didn’t know when she would be back or even when she would next be able to call him.

Looking at her team, it appeared they were as unhappy about their spontaneous trip as she was. Her management book had recommended doing a “team building trip”, but it was probably safe to say that the author did not have something like this in mind.

“Flight AI 47732 for Delhi is now reading for boarding. Please keep your passports and your boarding cards ready. At first, we would like to invite our First and Second Class passengers, families with small children, and passengers needing assistance,” chirped a young woman in a bright red uniform into her microphone.

Ianto, who had been staring at the ceiling for the past half an hour, took out his boarding pass and looked at it. “Maybe I’m stating the obvious...” he said to no one in particular, “but why are we flying first class?”

Gwen shrugged. The Prime Minister’s office was paying for this, so they better not spare any expenses. She got up and queued up to leave the (mostly) safe soil of Great Britain.

***

"Remind me, why do we have to do this again?" Owen stared at the seemingly endless range of mountains around them.

"Because we have to hunt the Yeti. A yeti. Something that's terrorizing the region. Alien stuff." Gwen crossed her arms. She wasn't sure whether this could ever be a successful mission.

"I thought Torchwood was working for Britain. Since when is the Himalaya part of that?" Owen still tried to find a reason to take the next flight back home. 

"This part of the Himalaya is part of India, and as you probably know, India was once part of the British Empire." Toshiko was about to give a longer lecture.

"Exactly: once! No longer! And we have enough to do with the Rift in Cardiff, why do we suddenly have to go abroad based on a 'possible sighting'? This stinks!"

Silently, Gwen agreed with his line of reasoning, but unlike Jack, she didn't know how to argue with Prime Minister Saxon. Hell, she had voted for him, how could she tell him that she couldn’t follow his orders?!

"Take it as a vote of confidence. They called us, not UNIT." Toshiko sounded slightly more cheerful - or maybe she was just trying to hide her own nervousness.

Ianto said nothing, checking some papers instead of looking at the impressive nature of snow-covered mountains. "Tonight, we're staying at a small hostel and tomorrow morning we'll meet our guide and get started with the hunt."

He sounded all business-like, but just by looking at him Gwen knew this was all pretend. There were deep, dark circles under his eyes, his hair was unkempt and she could see his stubble from three miles away. Had he slept on the plane? He must have, that gin tonic must have made him sleepy. It had made her, at least.

***

"I'm worried about Ianto." Gwen was talking to the ceiling, the light of the moon and the stars coming through the window slightly illuminating her face.

"Because he has to share a room with Owen? Come on, they'll survive one night in the same room. They've hunted Weevils together." Toshiko climbed into her bed.

The hostel was surprisingly comfortable, with a separate shower for every room and a delicious dinner with mountains of food that never seemed to diminish. Saxon’s office again hadn’t spared any expenses – hopefully Torchwood wouldn’t be asked to pay any of them back.

"No, I mean, in general. You know. We're all upset that Jack just left us like that, but... I think it's even harder for him." Gwen sat up in her bed. "I just want to help him."

Toshiko sat up as well. "Well... I don't think you can, unless you know how to contact Jack. I wouldn't worry too much, he'll be fine." Toshiko tried to smile, but it didn't really work.

Gwen wrapped her arms around her knees "I tried to talk to him, but..."

"Oh, Gwen, you know how boys are. They never talk. They get upset, drink too much beer, fall into their beds and the next morning they've forgotten they were upset." Gwen didn't look convinced. "Look, we don't even know what was going on between him and Jack."

"They snogged right in front of us." Gwen had to admit that she had been slightly jealous of that kiss. Rhys was a good kisser, but in her heart she knew that nothing would ever be able to beat a kiss from Captain Jack Harkness, despite her never having experienced one herself.

Toshiko sighed. "Yeah, but that can mean so many things. You seem to assume it's some kind of romance, but what if it was just a brief affair? You know, to let off steam? How do you know Ianto's thinking about Jack all the time? Maybe he's still mourning Lisa. Or maybe there's someone else he fancies. Or maybe there's a completely different problem that occupies his mind."

"You really think that's likely?" Gwen had never told the others that she had found Ianto in Jack's quarters and she didn't plan on ever changing that. 

"Not more or less so than him being heartbroken about Jack." Toshiko shrugged. Deep down, she too was worried about Ianto. She had never been good at sleeping on planes, despite the many trips between Heathrow and Osaka she had made in her life. So she knew that Ianto had barely slept at all during their flight, instead drowning several gin tonics and staring at the small screen in the seat in front of him. At first, she had hoped he was watching a movie, but when she had come back from the toilet, she had discovered it was a drama series. A Pakistani drama series. And when she had checked it on her own monitor, it had turned out the series was in Urdu with Hindi subtitles - and Toshiko was pretty sure Ianto knew neither of those languages. But she didn't want Gwen to worry. They couldn't afford to lose their focus right now. Emotions had to stand back when aliens and monsters were threatening humankind. "I'm sure he'll cheer up soon enough."

***

"Slept well last night?" Owen couldn't help but put on a malicious grin as he leaned against the wall of their room.

Breakfast had been good and plentiful, and even the sun was shining outside. Maybe the Himalaya was better than Cardiff. "Torchwood India" - Owen liked the sound of that. And even more he liked the sound of "Doctor Owen Harper, Commander, Torchwood India".

"Yes?" Ianto was putting on his thick insulated jacket, completely ignoring Owen.

"You know you talk in your sleep?" Owen's grin widened even more.

"I don't." Ianto turned to exit the room.

"I got proof." 

Ianto stopped in his step, turned his head and watched Owen holding up his mobile phone, pressing a button. Ianto was pale, but he had been so for quite a few weeks now, so it didn't mean anything.  
At first, there was just the sound of sheets being pulled and pushed. But then, surprisingly loud and surprisingly clear, there was Ianto's voice: "Jack... Yeah. Please. Oh, Jack."

"Oh, Jack! Do it, come on, shag me like I'm a girl!" Owen was grinning broadly by now, holding up his phone like a trophy. 

Somewhere in Ianto's head, it clicked. Like it had when he had shot Owen in the shoulder. This time, he didn't have a gun (bloody airport security), but he still had his fists. With a loud yell, he lunged at Owen who was too surprised to jump out of his way. They tumbled sideward, Owen losing his phone in the process, but at least not hitting his head on the concrete floor. Ianto kneeled on Owen's chest and although Owen tried to protect himself, Ianto's fist was faster and landed right on Owen's nose. A loud cracking noise resounded and all Owen could feel were massive pain and the warmth of blood flowing from his nose.

Owen cried out in pain and anger and sent his fists to Ianto's chests, sending him off his body and to the ground. Now it was Owen's turn to lunge at Ianto, and he managed to grip his colleague's right wrist. They wrestled with each other, neither of them able to get up or to send another punch to the other's face. But then Owen managed to push Ianto back hard enough so his head hit the floor. Ianto went numb for a few seconds and that was Owen's chance to punch his nose, but—

"Stop it, for God’s sake!" Gwen and Toshiko came running into the room. "Get off each other, now!!" Gwen grabbed Owen's right arm which was raised to deliver the punch, and dragged him away from Ianto who slowly sat up, holding a hand to where he had hit his head.

Owen was furious. "He broke my nose! He broke my fucking nose!" He held his hand to his nose and looked horror-struck at the amount of blood that covered his fingers.

"You deserved it, you bloody arsehole!" Gwen was surprised Ianto could yell so loud. Had he ever been this angry before? Maybe when they killed Lisa? No. No, that had been different... Ianto got up and went to leave the room, slightly shaky.

"You're letting him leave?! He gets to walk out of the door even though he broke my nose?! What kind of shitty leader are you, Gwen?!" Owen was even more furious now, trying to break from Gwen's grip on his arm.

"I said stop it! No more punching! Leave him alone!" Gwen didn't know what else to say. She was sure that Ianto wouldn't punch anyone for no real reason, so Owen was probably at least partly to blame. But they would leave for their alien hunt in half an hour and she didn't want to start the trip with an unresolved fight.

Toshiko had stopped near the door, unsure what she should - or even could - do, but when she saw the pleading look in Gwen's eyes, she hurried after Ianto.

***

Toshiko found Ianto outside, sitting on a large stone, head resting on his knees.

"Are you okay? I can bring you some aspirin, if you like." Toshiko didn't dare sitting down, she just stood there in front of him. Gwen was the caring social person, Toshiko couldn't even take care of a Tamagotchi – and Tamagotchi didn't require talking about their problems.

Ianto didn't move. For a moment, Toshiko thought he had a concussion, maybe even passed out, but then she could hear it, not loudly, but still clearly. He was crying. And it didn't sound like his hurting head was the reason for it.

She hesitated for a moment, then finally sat down next to him. If this had been an American movie, she would have put her arms around him, hugged him and everything would have been fine. But this was real life and neither her nor him were the hugging kind of person. So she just lightly patted his back and then held out a handkerchief. It took a few minutes, but then he finally accepted it.

They sat like that for a while, saying nothing, just looking at the beautiful nature surrounding them, Ianto drying his eyes and cheeks.

"Did they get married in the end?" Toshiko finally asked, not knowing how to start the conversation and realizing too late that this was definitely the dumbest way to start it.

"What? Who?" Ianto was confused, but at least he looked at her, eyes all puffy and red.

"That drama you watched on the plane. I fell asleep during the last episode and I didn't have enough time to watch it before they turned off the in-flight entertainment." Toshiko put on a faint smile. When you mess up, you have to make do with what you have.

Ianto was still clueless. "Sorry, no idea what you're talking about."

Toshiko nodded. Now they were getting somewhere. "You realize that's a problem? We're here to hunt an alien - I think - and if you keep on sleep-walking through your life, you could fall down one of these mountains and die here. And we don't want that." Toshiko stared intently at Ianto. She really meant it. They weren't close friends or anything, but she liked him enough to honestly say that she didn't want to lose him.

"I'm not sure Owen would agree with that..." Ianto looked at the ground, brown dirt covered with specks of white snow.

Toshiko sighed. She liked Owen. She liked him a lot. But even she knew that he could be a jerk at times. "He's a big child. We're both grown-ups, we know that all kids want is attention." She smiled. "Don't give him too much of yours."

Ianto seemed to ponder these words for a while, but then, he suddenly got up. He gestured towards the hostel, but vanished inside without saying what he was going to do there.

Toshiko sighed. She wasn't sure whether she had gotten through to him. Whether anything had gotten through to him ever since Jack had disappeared. Affair, yeah, sure. She shook her head about her own words. Gwen was supposed to be the people person, but somehow Toshiko had been the only one who had noticed something was going on between Jack and Ianto. If she was good at anything other than tech, it was listening. Listening to people talk and picking up the fine differences in tone, pitch and wording. Maybe it was her Japanese brain that was used to look for context and slight changes rather than the things that were actually said, but she had noticed early on that Jack's voice was warmer when he was addressing Ianto, and that Ianto's voice was higher when he was talking to Jack. These things didn't happen during brief affairs that meant nothing. She knew as much.

***

About three hours later, they stood in the middle of nowhere. Around them, impressive mountains climbed ever higher into the blue sky, promising adventures none of them was too keen to live through.

Gwen was surprised by how green the Himalayas were. They were standing on emerald grass, a river flowing past in the distance. She even saw colourful flowers blossoming in the bright sun.

Their guide, who insisted that they call him "Mike" because his real name "is impossible to pronounce for people from England" (where they weren't from, thank you very much), had stopped in his tracks and was checking his digital map or something.

Gwen had never been a big fan of group hiking activities, not least because her father had attempted to climb Mt. Snowdon five times during her youth and every time had insisted his family come with him. Needless to say, the weather had turned ugly every time and they had never made it to the top.

But at least her father had never lost his cheerfulness. Never mind the shitty weather or the uncomfortable sleeping bags, he had always been able to come up with a funny story.

Her current group: not so much. Although Toshiko had miraculously managed to put some sense into Ianto, he was still pissed at Owen. Who in turn was still pissed at Ianto, but was too busy getting the alien sedative out of his system which had mended his nose but wasn’t meant to be used in thin mountain air. Toshiko had never been much of a talker, and now she was trying to get a hold on some kind of alien signal with one of her high-tech devices. Which left Gwen with Mike, but unfortunately their guide wasn't interested in making conversation, either. They had agreed on the general course through the region to reach the numerous coordinates Saxon’s office had mailed them, and ever since Mike had remained silent.

Mike put away his digital equipment and raised his hand. “Another six hours until our first coordinates. Better eat while walking.” And then he started to march again, with a slightly faster pace than previously.

It was hard to keep up with him, especially while trying to chew an incredible hard bar of “Power Cherries” which had sounded delicious, but was anything but. Gwen had tried to stuff herself during breakfast, but she discovered now that it hadn’t helped much. The rest of the team wasn’t doing much better, but nobody was complaining. The alternative was to camp out here during the night and they all knew mountains were only beautiful during the day.

***

When they finally reached the first coordinates, night had already fallen. What they found were three simple houses, a couple of goats and hens, and about eight people who all understood more Hindi than English. With Mike as their translator, they were able to negotiate a sleeping place (among the goats) and some food (not tasty, but better than “Power Cherries”) and zero information about why Saxon’s office had given them this location. At least none of the people had seen anything remotely like a yet or some other alien being.

Owen was the first to fall asleep, not used to the thin air and even less used to such long walks. Toshiko rolled out her sleeping bag soon after, reporting that she hadn’t picked up on any alien signals during the day. Gwen was also very tired, but when she made her way to the goat pen, she found Ianto sitting on a stone, staring at the ground.

“You should go to sleep as well.” She put her hand on his shoulder. “We have to get up early tomorrow.”

“You really think he’ll come back?” Ianto whispered.

Gwen gulped, but then kneeled down next to him, trying to look into his face in the darkness. “I do.” She wasn’t sure about it, but there was no way she would say that out loud. “And he wants us to do our job while he’s not here. So please go to sleep now, we need you tomorrow.”

Ianto didn’t move. “How do you bear being away from Rhys?”

The question threw Gwen off her guard. Of course she was thinking of Rhys from time to time, and of course she missed him, but she knew they would soon (hopefully) go back to Cardiff. “I... don’t know. I mean... of course I’d prefer sharing the night with him rather than with an old goat, but... This is my job. There are people out there who need my help, so... So I guess I have to make sacrifices.” Gwen thought she saw Ianto nod. As her knees began to hurt, she got up. “Go to sleep, okay?” She said, before she went getting some rest herself.

***

“Wonderful! Amazing! The best thing ever!” Owen angrily kicked against some rubble on the ground.

The Himalaya morning sky was bright blue and really beautiful, but none of the Torchwood members were interested in that.

Mike had vanished.

Nobody had seen him since dinner. The village people knew nothing or at least pretended to, and Mike’s things were nowhere to be seen – including the list of coordinates and his digital map.

“We have to call the police.” Gwen said the first thing that came to her mind.

“Police?! In the Himalaya?! Come on, Gwen!” Owen got even angrier. “Forget the stupid prick and let’s get back home! This whole trip was a bad idea and you know it!”

“But our mission...” Gwen didn’t want to give up so quickly.

“There is no mission! We haven’t picked up any alien signal, so why should we stay?!” Owen grabbed Gwen’s shoulders. “Be a good boss and get us home!”

_Beep_.

Gwen and Owen stared at each other, then turned their heads towards Toshiko. She was holding her alien scanner, showing them the monitor.

_Beep_.

There it was – a small blinking red dot.

“Alien activity. Maybe three miles from here.” Toshiko didn’t sound very enthusiastic. If there had been a vote, Gwen was certain she herself would have been the only one to vote for “stay”.  
Toshiko grabbed her backpack, soon followed by Ianto who seemed to have gotten at least a few hours of sleep the previous night.


	3. Himalaya - Part II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Torchwood is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Will they ever get back home?

Unfortunately for them, the alien thing was moving at rather high speed. Three miles soon became six which soon became ten.

The further they ventured, the more the nature around them changed. Emerald green became dark brown, became stone grey. There were no people, no animals, no flowers. Gwen tried not to think too much about all of this and focus on the mission – catch the alien.

As darkness fell, they decided it was too dangerous to continue walking, so they set up camp as well as they could manage. The ground was stony and uncomfortable, but at least they managed to cook something warm with the equipment Owen had thought to bring along.

“Do we have a plan?” Owen sounded nervous, rather than angry, their miniature campfire lighting his face.

“Yes. We catch the alien and get back to Cardiff.” Gwen wanted to sound reassuring.

“Do we even have enough supplies for that?” It was Ianto, who had somehow found his voice of reason. “This soup was – okay, but how many more cans do we have? And how much water?”

“I’m sure we’ll be able to restock soon.” Gwen smiled.

“This isn’t a computer game with conveniently placed supply caches.” It was Owen. “He’s right, we don’t have enough to chase this thing for another week – _and_ get back to civilization.”

Gwen didn’t like being criticized from two sides – especially if it was by those two who had suddenly become allies. “Toshiko, I’m sure your device can manage to pick up human signals as well. Where’s the next settlement?”

“If I compute that, we might lose the alien’s signal.” Toshiko half-heartedly protested, but began to hack new commands into her device. It took her a while, but finally she looked up. “I’m picking up several signals about eight miles from here. We should be able to make it there tomorrow.” She smiled happily.

“Umm...” It was Ianto. “You realize that we are in an unstable border region? If this is Aksai Chin, we’re in big trouble.”

“Ak-what?” Owen was confused.

“Aksai Chin, one of the main disputed border areas between India and China, and currently administered by China.” Ianto sighed.

“I’m sure we’re not in China.” said Gwen. “There wasn’t any border sign, was there?”

“Maybe we just haven’t seen it...” It was Toshiko. “I mean, who knows where we stayed the first night.”

“I think we drove north – and China isn’t in the north, so we’re not in China.” Gwen said triumphantly.

“You realize the northern part of this state is administered by Pakistan?” Ianto sounded annoyed. “Ever heard of the Kashmir conflict? No?” 

“Saxon would never send us here if it wasn’t safe!” Gwen crossed her arms, but suddenly felt a lot less safe.

“I say we go back to where we came from, catch a car and take the next flight back to London.” Owen had had quite enough of the Himalayas by now.

“I agree.” Ianto nodded.

“Me too.” Toshiko had never felt comfortable surrounded by wild, uncontrolled nature.

“But what about the alien?!” Gwen didn’t want to give up so easily.

“Forget about the alien. You said it yourself, Torchwood is a democratic organization and we have a majority for going home.” Owen grabbed his sleeping bag. “Now, who’s watching the fire first?”

Gwen raised her hand. “I will.” Maybe sleep would drive some sense into her colleagues. Although they had a point. It wouldn’t do much good if they caught the alien only to be stranded in the middle of the Himalaya, far from any human settlement, but caught up in an international conflict.

On the bright side, Ianto was talking in full sentences again and they didn’t contain the words “Leave me alone”. Maybe their talk last night had changed his mind? Gwen liked to think so. 

She wondered what Rhys was doing now. What time was it in Cardiff? What time was it even here? She cursed herself for not having bought a new watch when her old one had been destroyed by a Weevil a while back. Mobile phones were the way to go – except where there were no chargers and no signal. As in: here.

She stared into the flame, trying to imagine Rhys’ face. Somehow it was really hard. She managed to see the general outline, but how exactly did his eyes look? And his nose? A chill ran down her spine when she couldn’t even quite recall his voice. How did he sound when he said “I love you”? “I miss you”? Suddenly she felt very sick and very alone. She pulled her knees to herself, wrapping her arms around them.

“You can sleep if you want to...” It was Ianto.

They looked at each other across the fire.

Suddenly Gwen felt tears running down her cheeks. “I’m sorry.”

Ianto looked puzzled.

“I’ve been separated from Rhys for barely three days now and I’m already forgetting how he looks like.” She rubbed her nose. “I can’t imagine how it must feel like for you. And I... I was wrong to be so angry with you. I just...” She didn’t know what else she could say. Or what she could have done differently. She just felt guilty.

“Doesn’t matter...” Ianto’s voice sounded like it was very far away. “It gets better after 90 days. I’ve read.”

But from what she could see of the expression on his face, he didn’t quite believe this himself.

***

When Gwen woke up the next morning, things had gone from bad to worse. It was snowing. No, actually it was more accurate to speak of a minor snow storm. Despite her thick jacket, Gwen was freezing and she could barely see for a mile.

“Which direction?” she heard Owen scream from behind her.

“South. I think.” It was Toshiko. “My monitor has gone into energy saving mode, I need sunshine for recharging!”

“I thought we had long lasting alien energy tech in the archive!” Ianto sounded slightly panicked.

“Which looks like common hand grenades and would never have made it through airport security inspections!” Toshiko explained herself angrily.

“Why didn’t you ask Saxon’s office for a special permit?!” Owen was angry, too.

“I tried, but no one was answering my calls!” Toshiko sounded annoyed and helpless at the same time.

“Okay, everyone, just shut up! Discussions won’t bring us to safety!” Gwen re-claimed her position as commander. “Tosh! You lead us where you think is right! This storm will stop, the sun will come out, you will recharge, and then we’ll get back home!”

Screw the alien. Screw Saxon. She needed to get back to Rhys. She didn’t want to die in the middle of nowhere.

***

After walking for what felt like days, the snow storm actually ceded and there was even enough sunshine for Toshiko to recharge her tracking device.

But it wasn’t all good news. “I fear we’ve gone too far east...” Toshiko was zooming in and out of the map. “I can’t find any human settlement around here – or at least none we could reach in one or two days...”

“That’s impossible, we haven’t walked that far!” Owen took the tracker from Toshiko. “Are you sure this is the right map?”

“The Himalaya’s is the only one on it.” Toshiko was shivering, whether from the cold or from panic was unclear.

“How much food do we have left? If we ration it, we could still make it...” Ianto was shivering, too, nervously looking at the vast whiteness around him. “And did anyone bring snow goggles? I don’t want to go snow-blind.”

Rummaging through their backpacks revealed another two cans of soup, three bars of “Power Cherries”, three bottles of water and two pairs of snow goggles. It wasn’t much, but they would hopefully be able to make it to some kind of human settlement.

“Why didn’t we pack more?” Owen moaned.

“Because we were told there would be a place to stay every night. And they were specifically saying that ‘food will be provided’.” Gwen wondered why on earth she had voted for Saxon. If he was as incompetent as the people who worked for him...

_Beep_.

“I’m picking up the alien signal again...” Toshiko didn’t sound enthusiastic. “It’s about an hour from here, but in the north.”

Everyone was looking at Gwen. They had long made a decision, but they wanted their boss to make the same. 

She sighed. “Alright, fine. Leave the alien be. We’re going back.” As soon as she had a mobile signal again, she would call UNIT. A bigger team was needed to take care of this.

***

When night fell again, they still weren’t close to any other human being, but at least they had come further south and the landscape was starting to replace grey with brown again. However, the ground was frozen so their sleeping bags didn’t offer much more comfort than the previous night.

As they tried to warm themselves with the meagre campfire, Gwen decided she needed to apologize properly.

“Look, I’m sorry I got us into this mess. I should have told Saxon to send UNIT, that we’re limited to South Wales...”

“You voted for him, didn’t you?” Owen observed. “Were pestering us with your ‘Vote Saxon’ buttons all month...”

“Yes. I’m also sorry for that. It’s none of my business who you vote for. Although I think you _should_ vote.”

“Hey, don’t look at me.” Owen raised his hands. “I voted.” He hesitated. “For Saxon. But not because you gave me that stupid button.”

“I voted for him, too.” Toshiko said. “Also not because of that button.”

“So we _all_ voted for Saxon...” Ianto said to no one in particular.

“Why did you vote for Saxon?” Toshiko was surprised. “Didn’t you say he didn’t have a plan for our country?”

Ianto coughed. “It’s not like his opponent had a good plan, either...”

“Also, his opponent was strictly against gay marriage.” Owen added with a slight sneer.

“Owen...” Gwen didn’t want another fight now they had finally reached a stage where Ianto was able to say a few coherent sentences.

“It’s not like that...” Ianto mumbled.

“And who’s going to believe that? You _snogged_ in front of us, remember?” Owen slightly raised his voice.

“He does that with a lot of people...” Ianto’s voice sounded almost as if he were in pain. They all knew he was right, but somehow Gwen had hoped for a more romantic answer. “He’s probably doing it right now.” And with that, Ianto vanished into his sleeping bag, not even his head visible anymore.

Gwen felt her heart break a little. When she would get back to Heathrow, Rhys would be standing there with a bouquet of red roses (at least she hoped he would) and they would still be engaged and Gwen could be sure that Rhys wouldn’t have shagged anyone else while she was gone. When Jack would (eventually) return, he would have kissed and shagged dozens of humans and/or aliens, died a few dozen times, and wouldn’t say that he had missed anyone from his Torchwood team. 

She needed to have a serious conversation with him if he ever set foot in the Hub again.

***

When Gwen woke up in the wee hours of the morning, she found the others had already packed their things and were ready to go.

“There’s a mass of beeping red dots and they’re heading into our direction!” Toshiko sounded alarmed.

“Humans?” Gwen rubbed her eyes as Ianto and Owen helped her gather her stuff.

“Aliens.” Owen answered. “And we don’t think they’re of the helpful dolphin kind.”

“Are they coming from the north?” asked Gwen as she shouldered her backpack.

“South.” Toshiko sighed. “So we can either head back to where we came from—“

“No way!” Owen shook his head viciously.

“Then it’s either east or west. Pakistan or China.” Toshiko looked at them.

“We’re all dead.” Ianto threw up his arms.

Gwen looked to her left – high mountains – and to her right – even higher mountains. She closed her eyes, whirled around a few times and then pointed her right arm. “This way!”

“Pakistan it is.” Toshiko didn’t sound happy, but Gwen doubted she would have sounded differently if she had pointed into the direction of China.

***

It was hard to run with backpacks. Not so much due to their weight, but because their bodies’ movement made them jump up and down on their backs. Soon, their shoulders started hurting, but they couldn’t stop running.

“Are they still after us?” Owen shouted, breathing heavily.

“Yes ... It’s like ... they’ve picked up ... our scent.” Toshiko had to lead, because she was the only one who knew how to handle the map, but she was long out of breath.

“How many are there?” Gwen didn’t really want the answer, but if it were just two or three, they might be able to handle that.

“Six...” Oh, shit. “Sixteen.” Oh, double shit.

They hurried on, but they got slower and the beeps of Toshiko’s monitor got louder.

“Does anyone have a gun?” Ianto stopped. “Give it to me, I’ll buy you some time.”

“You’re not sacrificing yourself!” Gwen was furious. “We’re a team and we’ll stay together!”

“What’s the difference between dying alone and dying as part of a team?” Ianto sounded miserable.

“You won’t die! None of us will!” Gwen shouted, unable to hide the panic in her voice.

“What was that?” It was Toshiko. “Did you hear that?”

They all kept quiet for a moment. Nothing. And then.

“Look!” Ianto was pointing at a – ball? Something round and metal was spinning in the sky. It whirled around, then suddenly stopped still and – _cling_!

“It’s got blades!” Owen let himself fall to the ground, covering his head.

Gwen watched in horror as the metal ball was joined by a dozen or so more of the same size and with the same blades. She grabbed Ianto’s arm who was frozen on the spot. “Get behind me!” He didn’t move. “Ianto!”

“Jack...” As Ianto looked up at the metal ball, it sent a red beam towards him and suddenly all that Gwen was grabbing was thin air.

“No!!!” Gwen stared at the spot where Ianto had stood just a few seconds ago. And then she saw six of the metal balls lining up, a red beam of light emerging from each of them.


	4. Back Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You watched "Last of the Time Lords", you know what happened. So this is just a brief epilogue

“Flight AI 47732 for Delhi is now reading for boarding. Please keep your passports and your boarding cards ready. At first, we would like to invite our First and Second Class passengers, families with small children, and passengers needing assistance,” chirped a young woman in a bright red uniform into her microphone.

Ianto, who had been staring at the ceiling for the past half an hour, took out his boarding pass and looked at it. “Maybe I’m stating the obvious...” he said to no one in particular, “but what on earth are we doing here?”

Gwen blinked. This was London Heathrow. And they were here, because...

Well...

She looked at Owen, but he was just rubbing his head, looking confused. Then she looked at Toshiko who simply shrugged.

She looked back at Ianto. “You have a boarding pass?”

He nodded. “First class to Delhi and then first class to... Somewhere.” He raised his eyebrows. “Team-building trip on Redcon?”

Gwen scratched her head. “I’m sure that wasn’t in my book...” She searched the thick jacket she had brought along for any clues, but had no luck.

“Maybe we should just go back to Cardiff, then?” Owen suggested as he got up.

“And how do we explain these unnecessary expenses to the Treasury?” Ianto was worried about practical things. Somehow that made Gwen happy. Maybe things would turn out fine after all.  
“Don’t worry. I’m sure our boss here can work something out.” Owen patted Gwen’s shoulder and then headed towards the nearest exit.

“We should at least tell them that we’re not going...” Toshiko said, nodding into the direction of the flight assistants checking in the other passengers. “Otherwise we’re just delaying the flight for everyone else...”

***

“So what did she tell them?”

“I think something about a political emergency and a dead dog...” Ianto chuckled.

“And they let you go?”

“After she promised that we wouldn’t demand our money back, yes.” Ianto laughed. “Of course we didn’t keep that promise, but they didn’t know that...” His index finger slowly danced over Jack’s naked chest. “But seriously, how _did_ we end up there?”

Jack’s hand softly caressed Ianto’s back. “Do you really want to know? It’s a very long and very repetitive story.”

Ianto thought for a moment, then draped his arm around Jack. “I haven’t seen you for such a long time, I wouldn’t mind if you read from the phone book.” He buried his nose in the crook of Jack’s neck.

Jack kissed Ianto’s hair. “Fine. But don’t say I didn’t warn you. Don’t forget, this is an adventure I had with the Doctor.”


End file.
